The interactive light installation I’ll be there soon consists of pulsating light sources, each representing the breath of a person with a particular migration history. Via QR codes at the individual points of light, visitors can listen to their personal stories and reflections on home, identity, and belonging.

When did you come to Germany? How did you feel back then? What does home mean to you? Have you found a new way of arriving here?

Germany is a post-migrant society in which one in three people identifies a migration history as part of their family background. Yet questions of belonging and home remain a challenge for many, often accompanied by uncertainty and exclusion in times of a rightward political shift.

Among those sharing their stories are guest workers, refugees, people persecuted for political reasons, exchange students, and adoptees. They are called Jouanna, Leyla, Oumar, Eunbyeol, Nataly, Mohammad, Megaloh, Svitlana, Yasmin, Mariam, Timm, and hn lyonga. And also Gyesoon Jeong, my mother, who came to Germany from Korea as a guest worker in the 1980s and never returned.

Who has the privilege of truly being allowed to arrive?

Who has the privilege of discovering a sense of home?

Who has the privilege of being able to breathe freely?

Some of these people came to Germany often with nothing except their own breath. The installation gives these breaths a presence and a voice, allowing their stories to be heard.

The project is an invitation, a moment of recognition and visibility for migrant biographies. It creates a space that says: here you are allowed to breathe. Here you are allowed to be.

Credits
Workshop Coordinator: Hojin Kang
Participating students: Raechan Park, Giuseppina Buttino, Jennifer Jung, Alina Zimmer
Supervision: Prof. Burkhard Detzler, Michael Schmitz

As part of the workshop week at the HBKsaar Art University in Saarbruecken, Germany.

The interactive light installation I’ll be there soon consists of pulsating light sources, each representing the breath of a person with a particular migration history. Via QR codes at the individual points of light, visitors can listen to their personal stories and reflections on home, identity, and belonging.

When did you come to Germany? How did you feel back then? What does home mean to you? Have you found a new way of arriving here?

Germany is a post-migrant society in which one in three people identifies a migration history as part of their family background. Yet questions of belonging and home remain a challenge for many, often accompanied by uncertainty and exclusion in times of a rightward political shift.

Among those sharing their stories are guest workers, refugees, people persecuted for political reasons, exchange students, and adoptees. They are called Jouanna, Leyla, Oumar, Eunbyeol, Nataly, Mohammad, Megaloh, Svitlana, Yasmin, Mariam, Timm, and hn lyonga. And also Gyesoon Jeong, my mother, who came to Germany from Korea as a guest worker in the 1980s and never returned.

Who has the privilege of truly being allowed to arrive?

Who has the privilege of discovering a sense of home?

Who has the privilege of being able to breathe freely?

Some of these people came to Germany often with nothing except their own breath. The installation gives these breaths a presence and a voice, allowing their stories to be heard.

The project is an invitation, a moment of recognition and visibility for migrant biographies. It creates a space that says: here you are allowed to breathe. Here you are allowed to be.

Credits
Workshop Coordinator: Hojin Kang
Participating students: Raechan Park, Giuseppina Buttino, Jennifer Jung, Alina Zimmer
Supervision: Prof. Burkhard Detzler, Michael Schmitz

As part of the workshop week at the HBKsaar Art University in Saarbruecken, Germany.